One Laptop Per Child pledge

[Jeff Kinz]

On Sat, May 27, 2006 at 10:27:43PM -0400, David Ecklein wrote:
> I don't understand this fixation on laptops.  These are commodities for the
> affluent, costing twice as much when new as desktops.  They have far less
> upgrade capability, the screens are delicate and hard to repair, the mouse
> and keyboard are compromises.  The cases are fragile and often have
> proprietary form factors and parts, inhibiting inexpensive repairs.  The
> sole asset of a laptop is portability, which many college students have
> found turns into a liability: they are one of the most stolen items on
> campus.


Hi David,

Your idea of what a laptop computers totally matches the current "image"
designed and promoted by the people marketing to modern American office
place right now.  It's a status toy that somewhat resembles the image
that Italian sports cars used to have in the '60s and '70s.  Expensive
high status toys which perform some functions marvelously well but spend
a great deal of time being repaired and paid for.

Fortunately there's more than one way to do it.  The laptop units being
designed by the one laptop per child unit are completely different in
every way from the properties that you described above.

It's just possible that the man who originally started MIT's media lab
might have some unique ideas about how to approach creating a portable,
rugged computing unit that consumes very little power.  I hope you take
the time to take a look at the one laptop per child wiki. Its very
enlightening.  The unit has unique ideas and of course, since there is
no profit margin that needs to be satisfied to build the unit the
acquisition cost is tremendously reduced.

There are currently thin client units available on the market that are
retailing for around $150.  These units, in some ways have larger more
powerful configurations than the OLPC units.  And, given modern
marketing costs and the necessary profit margins as well as the cost of
sales etc. yada yada I would be willing to bet you that the cost of
production for those thin client units is somewhere between 60 and $80,
or even less



> 
> IMHO, this laptop promotion is being done for reasons other than the benefit
> of school children, whether here or abroad.
> 
> I would rather see an effort mounted to refurbish the many usable desktops
> that are going to the dump every day.  The participation of high school
> computer and science clubs could be enlisted; there is more standardization
> with desktops than with laptops, and you don't need special tools or skills
> with the latter.  Since flat screens are trendy and recently relatively
> affordable, new CRT monitors are selling for a song, usable used ones are so
> plentiful the Salvation Army and Goodwill no longer accepts them.  I thought
> the rise of Linux would make recycling desktops an obvious project (an OS
> not as demanding as, say, XP), but now I am not so sure.  As my Filipina
> mother-in-law used to say, common sense is not so common.
> 
> Dave Ecklein
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Richard A Sharpe" <rasharpe at earthlink.net>
> To: <gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org>
> Cc: <rasharpe at earthlink.net>
> Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2006 4:32 PM
> Subject: RE: One Laptop Per Child pledge
> 
> 
> >
> > I'd support this project if it were to get a laptop in every household in
> > the USA but third world I don't think so, let's start thinking about
> taking
> > care of our own first the rest of the world.
> >
> > Rich
> >
> > Richard A Sharpe
> > 8 Meadowview Lane
> > Merrimack, NH 03054
> > "Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you, not
> because
> > they are kind, but because you are."
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: gnhlug-discuss-admin at mail.gnhlug.org
> > [mailto:gnhlug-discuss-admin at mail.gnhlug.org] On Behalf Of Christopher
> > Schmidt
> > Sent: Friday, May 26, 2006 10:27 PM
> > To: Fred
> > Cc: gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org
> > Subject: Re: One Laptop Per Child pledge
> >
> > On Fri, May 26, 2006 at 10:01:52PM -0400, Fred wrote:
> > > Anyway, just to add my own $0.02, I don't see the $100 PC making much f
> a
> > > difference -- unless it can connect to the Internet. Otherwise the
> "third
> > > world" will be limited to whatever content and software their respective
> > > governments will allow to be installed on those PCs.
> >
> > Er. The machines are running Linux -- Fedora Core or some RedHat
> > variant? -- and the machines are designed to create ad-hoc wireless
> > networks.
> >
> > > Oh, and unless these PCs can be run with a hand crank or solar cells,
> > still
> > > pretty useless in many parts of the world. And with the typical power
> > > consumption of laptop CPUs, that's a lot of hand cranking. And I don't
> see
> >
> > > how you can keep the costs down to $100 if you have to include solar
> > cells.
> >
> > Hand cranks or other similar alternative power options have always been
> > the plan for the $100 OLPC laptops. The earlier marketing materials have
> > always included pictures including a hand crank. There's ongoing
> > discussion within the project as to how to accomodate the power needs of
> > the laptop without depending on people to have wall sockets.
> >
> > Note that the laptops have no hard drives (flash only), relatively small
> > screens, and are designed to run in black and white mode most of the
> > time for better power consumption.
> >
> > Also note that these aren't PCs...
> >
> > I think that either you or I is completely misunderstanding the purpose
> > of the project, or suffering under some similarly constricting
> > misunderstanding. Care to enlighten me as to which it might be?
> >
> > -- 
> > Christopher Schmidt
> > Web Developer
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> 
> 
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-- 
Jeff Kinz, Emergent Research, Hudson, MA.
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